100 Largest Yachts 2009 #82: Attessa

Billionaire industrialist, shipping magnate, and true boat lover Dennis Washington owns this 226-foot beauty, which has a storied past despite her youthful appearance. She was originally launched in 1998 as the 203-foot Feadship Lady Avila. In May 2001, during a passage from Thailand to Rhodes, she caught fire in the Red Sea, most likely due to oil leaking onto a main-engine exhaust manifold. With charred machinery spaces, a seriously deformed sundeck, and smoke damage throughout, she was nevertheless delivered through the Suez Canal to Rhodes on one engine by a stalwart and unscathed crew. From there she returned to her birthplace in Holland. Washington purchased the damaged megayacht in 2002 and had her interior removed, all of her components repaired or replaced, and substantial modifications installed. A resplendent Attessa was launched in 2005 with a stern extension (to make room for a long, teak-planked “beach deck”), extended main and bridge decks (to accommodate a helipad for Washington’s silver EC-130), and a fiberglass sundeck tooled by Janicki Industries and molded in one piece by Northern Marine.